Inhopeless

That's a pretty damn big map!

I think you have a good CJ here, with a brilliant in-depth history. You've really put some effort and time into this.

Cartley is a new city. The site is based on the former city of Spoclety, which was destroyed in a terrorist attack some years ago. After a clean-up operation using technology designed by the city's university before it imploded, the government decided that the site would hold a new city - one that will go beyond the reaches of its predessessor. At present, the city is in the early growth stages, with under 250,000 people living in the city. The land the city is built on has rolling landscapes and a lot of dense forest. There is a small river - the River Spoclety - that runs through the city, separating the South Urbem from the North Urbem. The developed part of the city is mostly packed on the South Urbem, however, as building density has reached the limit there, the Cartley City Council have decided to develop in North Urbem. Here is an image captured by the Mirum satellite, which was launched during the Spoclety times. As you can see the city is served by no more than eight bridges connecting both Urbems, and by Cartley City International Airport (IATA: CTC), which connects to destinations all across the planet. Here are demographics for the 249,500 people who live in the city. GENDER 49/51 - men/women RACE White (British/Irish/European/Other) - 51% Asian (Bangladeshi/Indian/Pakistani) - 31% Black (African/Carribean) - 16% Other - 2% POLITICAL AFFILIATION Labour - 40% Lib-Dem - 30% Conservative - 25% Other - 15% AGE Under-16: 30% 16-68: 60% 68+: 10% Of course, as the city expands further north and west, these tallies may change. Data cannot be provided on city districts, as the City Council have declared that the city has not 'reached the limits' specified by the Ordinace 43-A (Cartley Metropolitian Boundary Act). Onto the main points about the city. The city has been seeing an increase in interest from high-tech companies, which would bring many millions into the economy. However, not through tax. Much like Spoclety, the city is a tax haven. No citizen, enterprise or commerical building pays any tax directly to the City Coucil Treasury - only 0.5% of earnings. Much like Spoclety, the city supports itself in near-autarky, mainly on traffic tax and transport tolls. This means that the city has a very wide-reaching and substantial subway system (called the Subterra), much rivalling that of London or New York City in efficiency and speed. Nearly every building in the city is within 200m of a Subterra station, which leaves those that are not, or do not want to ride on the Subterra, has a near-open road system. Like Spoclety, the city is served by US-style grid system roads, consisting of wide A-roads & Dual-carrigeways, and smaller A-roads which carry less traffic. All the side streets are either B-roads or just unclassifted (no road number). If the city grows enough, the Council is expecting the building of a motorway within the city. However, unlike Spoclety, Cartley, has few of the problems that plagued it. Spoclety had to enact ordinance after ordinance to keep the pollution of the industrialists under control. These did not work, and resulted in the bulldozing of the Spoclety Industrial Estate, which employed thousands and provided millions into the city's coffers. Scientists at the Cartley City University have found a Pollution Condeser Unit, which sucks up nearly all the pollution caused by the industrial sector, and even of the city's fossil-fuel power plants. Also, unlike Spoclety, the city has had very few riots from the health service workers. The city has overcome this by placing several hospital units very close to each other and merging them to form superhospitals, which treat more patients than ever forseen, and at the same level of care as in Spoclety. Also, each school has had success rates as high at 98% of A-A* grades at GCSE, making Cartley - for now - one of the smartest cities in the world. All students are guaranteed a place at the local University, which, although young, is a member of the Russel Group of universities. Stay tuned for more about this brave new city.

The founder of the city, Mr. Spoclety would never have thought of what his small place would look like today. He could never have dreamt of the achievements his tiny hamlet has done. To show how much the city has expanded, here is a colour-coded map of the history of the territory the city has occupied. (KEY: BLACK LINES ARE DUAL-CARRIGEWAYS/MAIN A-ROADS RED LINES ARE MOTORWAYS) N.B. In the central cream section the Year is 40, and in the north-east green sector is Year 20 Here is a map of the current city districts and district areas. As you can see the biggest district is Eloiseville (green shades), and the largest area is East Ridgetown (dark purple) And finally, this map is of the constituencies the city holds. Aversmith and Harney have Labour representatives, and Eloiseville has a Liberal Democrat representative.

This is a district breakdown of the city, shown in different colours for each area. The thin black lines represent roads, the thick black lines represent avenues and the thickest black line represents the Interstate. If you cannot see the district names: Gumsmith Harnsley Sordisley Silicon Corner North Old City Salisbury Cottons South Old City Airport Industrial Estate (Note: Airport is not a district. That's just the area the airport occupies. The airport is part of Salisbury) These outlines are just a rough guide.

Wow. Pretty good looking war-zone. You've really captured a realistic harsh war feel, especially with the 'damage' limitations of SimCity.

I got some mods that gave me European roads, but apart from that, I can't find much else. You got any ideal plugins?

I got a damn good economy (loads more in than out). My commute times are really low (compared to what I had at the start). And I got some high-tech ind. in there too. How can you infer all that from reading a short article and a screenshot?

In the late 1800s, a woman named Eliza Lerherbridge, married to Derrick Lerherbridge, would choose a certain spot to rest her tired workers. That spot, today is a bustling metropolis, full of noise, colour, and ideas. Oh, and Mrs. Lerherbridge is the brother of Mr. Spoclety, founder of Spoclety. Must be in the genes. Lerherbridge, is in essence, built much the same... well in road structure. The city has a grid-system of roads, and avenues, with side-streets leading to homes and businesses. Of course, not forgetting the City Orbital Roadway, a strip of road that goes around the edge of the city. There is also the I-109, which leads north out of the city, and joins the I-45 in San Fran. This image was taken using Mirum A, a spacecraft co-designed by the University of Lerherbridge and the University of the City of Spoclety, but they don't like mentioning that fact. The city's architecture is varied, with tall buildings in the South of the city, and smaller homes and apartment blocks in the North, with mid-sized houses in the central. The city has the Lerherbridge International Airport (IATA:LHG), connecting hub for low-cost domestic flights and flights to ANYWHERE in the world, and also serves as an air force base. The city is also the HQ of SoGeeq, the world's most successful retail chain, owning over 200 high streets across the world. The city has the staduim for the Lerherbride United football team, who are gaining on some teams in the Major League Soccer. The city also has two high-ranking baseball teams: the Lerherbridge Wildcats, and the Sordisley Tigers (Sordisley is an area of Lerherbridge) The city has its main governmental buildings on the aptly named Capitol Row, which is roughly in the centre of the above image. The city has its own University, which, is ranked as a 'pretty good' university by the University Guide of America, and charges locals no fee for attending. The city, however, has a rather low pass rate. Half the city is surrounded by outstanding schools, whereas the other half have terrible schools, if grades are to be believed. However, this may change in the forseeable future. The crime rate is execptionally low, with a 100% arrest rate for every perp. The city is also a very good hotspot for TV and film crews who don't like Hollywood. The city has played host to several TV shows, such as 'The Steady State Theory'. 'Enemies', and 'Star Hike'. Unlike other cities, the transport network is suprisingly good. More residents travel using the Subway than by car, and even more walk, leading to little congestion on the roads. The city is served by LoudR 102.0 FM, a rock music station, and Bounce 89 FM, for pop and crunk music, and TalkWord 90.1 FM, a news and talk radio station. Lerherbridge. No bridges. Just some good ol' Californian fun.

Ordinance 8-C (The Industrial Pollution Act) has failed. The city council has taken action to remove all industrial sectors (Ordinance 14-Q 'The Industrial Demolition Act'), resulting in a giant loss of air pollution in the city. The land has been redeveloped. Because it is no longer an industrial estate, the names of the city's districts will go back to pre-Ordinance 7-F (The Harney Merger Act) borders. What is Eloiseville will be renamed Harney again, and the new former industrial estate will become Eloiseville. The small area encompassed by the red line was the former industrial estate, and now the new Eloiseville district. The line was drawn on the image after an upgrade to the Mirum's software made it capable of auto-labelling streets and districts. However, the auto-label function is still in its infancy, so we'll have to see. Also, the satellite has been used for the SETI program, and will hopefully pick up traces of intelligent life. But, however, due to the city's rising standings in the Barclay's Premiership (Major League Conventional Football for those not in the know), sponsorship offers are at an all time high, from transnationals like Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Unilever. Some in footballing circles say that the homegrown players of the squad are just as good as Manchester United in playing capability, after their 2-1 win against Fulham yesterday. This picture, from the satellite Mirum, shows the Spoclety United stadium. To the right (north) of the stadium, is the famed University of the City of Spoclety and the City Fair. To the bottom (east), you can see the Spoclety International Airport Terminal 1&2. There are talks in the Council of building a third terminal. And, to the left (south) you can see Monumental Row, a collection of life-size replicas of many world landmarks, including the Empire State Building and the Bank of China Tower. This location is in the East Aversmith area, near the western side of the city. Also, for the first time in decades, a form of transport other than the car is the most widely used. Walking. According to statistics collected by the city's Department for Demography and Data (DoDD), more citizens walk to work or home than drive a car, with using the city's Underway network coming a very close third. Also, the city's long-term resident population has hit 900,000 with experts predicting 1,000,000 within some time. If the mark was hit, this would make Spoclety the second-largest metropolitian administrative area (after Birmingham - London is actually run by 40-odd bourough councils), and the third largest city (after Birmingham [1.1mn] and London [8.9mn]). Spoclety has also been paired with the city of Lerherbridge, in South California. Stay tuned for their mayor to write about his city.

The latest thing to happen is the installation of a brand-new geo-stationary communcations satellite for the UK. Pioneered using students, professors from the University and city officials, Mirum A has been launched from the ESA/UKSA (European Space Agency/UK Space Agency) Craft Port. The satellite is not only capable of giving GPS co-ordinates to an accuracy of 1cm, but can take high-resolution photographs of Earth, with a zoom capable of looking at a newspaper in a person's hand. We have taken the oppotunity to use Mirum to take pictures of our fair city. Although this view may look hideous, even horrifying, several new directives are in order. In the East section of the city (as on the image) there are several 'green spaces' within the industrial sector. This is part of a new scheme to lower industrial pollution. The council have decided to not raise taxes on industry, but has instead said that all current and prospective industrial users MUST put at least 50m2 of trees or green spaces, in order to combat the rise in pollution. Failure to do so will result in land being re-zoned for other uses. Some directives that are not shown on the map include the merging of the district of Harney with some other parts to form Eloiseville, named after the wife of Spoclety. This will rename the constituency Eloiseville, and a by-election will occur. Bookmakers are saying that the area could vote Labour. Another directive is to build more parks in dense public areas, such as Old Spoclety (in the SW of the photo) and in North Harney (or N. Eloiseville), at the very North of the photo. The second image shows the level of zoom that can be done by Mirum. (This is only half the level) The image is of the South West Eloiseville/South East Old City districts of the city, separated by the M8 also known as the In-City Expressway. There are some notable places in this image. There is the Council Building, which is modelled on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. In the bottom of the image, you can see the M8, also known as the In-City Expressway. Just North of the M8, you can see the Gatley Power Plant, named after the Roads and Transport Minister, who designed most of the initial roads in the city's grid system, and the route of the first bus service, and the first few Underway Lines, including the Cibus-Line. Next month the city will host the Gaming Conference, a giant meeting and show for all of the major video-game players (no pun intended), including EA, and Spoclety-born Lusio Games (Lusio is Latin for playing), at the world-famous Aula Loquitur in central Eloiseville. There are new updates on the city problems. Air Pollution is slowly decreasing due to the Green Industrials Act. Road traffic has been lessening its strain on capacity by the placement of new bus stops in residential roads, and the creation of more Underway Lines that go through such zones as well as commercial zones.

Birmingham, UK. 1. Cheaper to live in than London 2. Less congestion than London 3. All Roads (well, motorways) lead to Birmingham 4. There wouldn't be: - The bus stop - City Planning - The Steam Engine - Coal Plants - Cadbury's - City tram services - The tram - A bunch of other stuff 5. The Selfridges building looks pretty cool 6. There is no Six.

The Spoclety local area is one of the well-equipped and best funded cities in Britain, and is an example to many the world over. The city was started over 150 years ago, under the leadership of M. Spoclety. After his death 30 years after the start of the city, the place was renamed after him. However, by this time, high-rises, the University, and much of the city's infrastructure was created. Many of the roads, power plants, water pipes, and municipal buildings have not been touched since their building, and only thirty new roads were created or extended since. The city is a hung council, i.e. there is no overall control of the city council by one party. However, the city, overall voted Labour in the elections. The city also has a swing constituency: Spoclety Aversmith-Waterside, which was coaxed by major political parties. It eventually turned into a LibDem constituency, whereas before it was Labour-controlled. The city can be split into three constituencies and its containing wards/districts: SPOCLETY AVERSMITH - Aversmith -Waterside -Bellevue -West Harney SPOCLETY HARNEY -Harney (excl. West Harney & North Harney) -Old City - SPOCLETY RIDGETOWN -Ridgetown -North Harney -Southend -Spoclety Industrial Estate Demography: RACE White: 50% South Asian: 40% Black: 14% Other: 1% AGE Under-16: 30% 16-68: 50% 68+: 20% SEX Male: 48% Female: 52% RELIGION Christian: 30% Muslim: 30% Athiest/Non-Religious: 30% Other: 10% POLITCAL AFFILIATION Labour: 30% Tory: 20% Lib Dem: 25% Other: 25% The city also has the highest retirement age in the western world: 68 years. The city is divided mostly by the main dual-carrigeways, which run in a grid-system, along with the roads and some smaller streets. The city is served by the two motorways that run through it, plus the internal motorway that links the east of the city to the Old City in the south-west, couriering people and goods. The city has Spoclety International Airport (IATA: SPL), a network hub for many airlines who don't want to re-route through London Heathrow. The city has an incredible night-life, with many districts being mini-cities in themselves with shops, drive-ins, large department stores, and homes. The city has a mixture of high-rise luxury apartments and smaller homes and bunglalows, with many buildings reserved for social housing, meaning there is no homeless guy on the streets tonight. The city is home to Essent Media Group, one of the world's largest film, TV and music producers, and world-famous rock act Automated Smiles. There also is a well-funded public transport system, run by the council's Network Transport. The city has over fifteen subway lines (called the Underway) and twenty or so bus routes. The city council wanted to have an above-ground rail link, however, this was voted down as the proposal would take up room that could be put to use for homes and businesses. Nearly all of the council-funded schools have near 100% A* grades, with all students getting a free place at the University of the City of Spoclety, with out-of-towners paying £5,000 a year for accessing the 'common man's Oxbridge'. The city has excellent health coverage, with nearly every square-kilometre of residental area being served by at least three clinics and one large hospital. An NHS investigation found care in these medical centres to be similar to those in private care. The city is also the only city in Britain where nobody pays any tax. No money goes from the citizens', businesses', or industry's pockets to the city council. However, the city has one of the most self-sustaining budgets ever. Why? The city's strict zoning laws and traffic reduction schemes means that all owners of cars, trucks and other transport pay a £2 tax per month per twenty kilometres on every vehicle, with bus and subway fares at 70 pence. The city also has notorious measurment laws, with all measurments of distance, volume, area, depth only being measured in SI units (e.g. metres, milliletres, hectares, kilometres). However, the city is not all fun-and-games. Although the city has one of the best-funded healthcare systems in the world, many clinics shut down for strikes, even though much of the council budget is spent on healthcare. The city has a worsening air pollution problem, with dirty and manufacturing industries commiting the most to overall air polltution. Many laws have been passed in City Hall limiting the effect of emissions of cars (all vehicles and buildings in the city are powered by hydrogen, thanks to work at the University), and a Cleaner Air Act passed, industry has yet not cleared up its act. The council is deciding whether to introduce a tax on industry for the first time since the inception of the city. The city has a traffic problem too. Although very few roads are congested, most roads in the city are operating at nearly 300% of capacity, especially on dual-carrigeways and roads, leading to many accidents. Plans have been drawn out by road planners to re-route traffic by building new roads, however, this is still in limbo in City Hall. That's all there is to the city of Spoclety. It may not be the oldest. It may not be the coolest. But it damn well is pretty good.